"Okay, we're going to work on breathing now—how to hold your breath when you're in water so that you float and also how to avoid inhaling water. Inhale and fill up your belly—you'll need to lie back and make your body rigid so that it rises to the surface of the water. I'll hold your shoulders, work on getting your hips up. That's right—fill up your belly. There you go. I'm going to take my hand away while you float… don't worry—you won't sink… and get Aminah floating, too. Good, very good. There you go…" Ms. Midgeon instructed… her voice a bit muddled by the water that lapped against the sides of his face. He swished his hands underneath him like little paddles and that also helped him stay on the surface of the water.

Under the water the sounds were echoey and soothing… he could hear Ms. Midgeon telling Aminah to fill her belly with air and there were other sounds, too—the faint sound of bells on the other side of the pool that signaled the end of the lane along with the vibrations and the voices of the others bouncing off the cave walls, and it was very calming. He liked floating now that he was actually doing it. His head butted up against the rope with the charmed bubbles that indicated the swimming lane and he kicked his feet to motor away from it a bit.

I'm actually kind of swimming. Won't Mei be surprised!

Ms. Midgeon had them practice float on their bellies and also taught them how to put their faces in the water and how to draw a breath while they were moving so that they could keep swimming and breath at the same time. Harry was just paddling around (doing a stroke aptly called the doggie paddle), but it was more swimming than he'd ever done before and it felt really good to know that he could keep his head above water for a while.

It makes sleeping next to an Egress to the ocean a lot less frightening.

It was time to go to their next lessons and Ms. Midgeon was helping Gordon with his weights so that he could get out of the pool. Their classmates were laughing and talking as their feet slapped through puddles on their way to the locker rooms.

"Harry?" Aminah asked, paddling up next to him as he was working his way toward the stairs.

"Yeah?"

"Well… I just wanted to thank you for listening today… I guess I really needed to talk about it."

"Yeah, sure."

"It's been hard to talk about…"

"I get that," Harry said, thinking about his struggles to talk about what happened to him.

"It's just that people get so weird about it…"

"What do you mean?" Harry's breath caught—he hoped he hadn't been weird about it.

"Well, it's like they don't get that what happened with my dad is a really terrible and unexpected thing… they think that all Muslims are terrorists who do this kind of stuff all the time. And it is like what happened to me makes sense… fits with their story of what all brown people who wear burkas and turbans do."

"Oh. Yeah, that's the way my uncle thinks. He's always talking about how the government should be rounding up everyone and sending them back to where they came from… but he thinks that about pretty much everyone who isn't exactly like him. He's really… pretty horrid."

"I get that a lot… 'Go home, Paki!' and the funny thing is that my mom's side of the family… we've been here since before the Romans were building walls and massacring druids in the name of their God."

"I don't get why people do it…"

"Do what?"

"Hurt each other so much," Harry said as he climbed out of the water, shivering in the cool air of the cave.

"Yeah," Aminah said as she followed behind him. "Especially my dad. He was never like that… I never would have thought him capable of it… until it happened…"

Harry stopped suddenly and Aminah ran into him.

"Sorry," he muttered to her surprised oomph.

"What's going on?"

"Oh, I just thought of something," Harry said as he listened. It sounded like everyone else had already left the pools except for Ms. Midgeon and Gordon who were talking in a pool on the other side of the cave.

"What is it?"

"You said that your father's family tried to get the magic out of him."

"Yes, he almost died," Aminah said. "Maybe that would have been better… then I wouldn't have been born…"

"Aminah!" Harry exclaimed at first shocked, then added in a low voice, "but I've thought the same thing… about me."

"I mean. That sounds terrible… like I wish my father died… I don't know. I'm so horrible. How could I even say that? I mean before this… he was the kindest, gentlest man. I really couldn't believe it of him," Aminah said and Harry could feel the hurt in her voice—it made his own throat close as he listened to her speak.

He reached for her and patted her awkwardly on the arm and could feel her trembling—he wasn't sure if it was from tears or from being cold. He took his staff out of his pocket and summoned two towels and held his hand out for them expectantly. When they smacked against his hand, he realized that they were wet towels.

"Ugh. Accio dry towels!"

He laughed when they thudded against his chest and wrapped his arm around them while also holding onto the two wet towels.

In the meantime, Aminah's crying had become more audible and Harry felt his heart starting to flutter at the base of his throat and his stomach clench. His feet tingled like they wanted to run—to go get someone who could actually handle this.

Harry tried to cover his unease by putting the towel around Aminah's shoulders, but he misjudged her angle and didn't get it draped very effectively. They laughed as they bonked heads trying to catch the falling towel.

"Oh, ow. And Harry… really? You've thought the same thing? That you shouldn't have been born? But if you hadn't been born, who would have stopped You-Know-Who?!"

"Yeah, well, maybe it would have been someone else and they would have done it properly and he wouldn't be lurking around still. I don't know. I mean everyone knows my story, but maybe there's something that you did or will do that will have the same impact… you never know."

"No. I don't think so. I'm just a nobody. No one would notice… and it would have saved my family a world of hurt."

"No. I'm a nobody… seriously. If I hadn't been born, maybe my parents would still be alive…"

"Merlin, Harry, that's terrible," Aminah said. "I mean, why on earth would you think that? It's not like You-Know-Who would have left your family alone, is it?"

"Yeah, but that's not what I wanted to say… I was thinking about how your dad was hurt and then he hurt you… Wouldn't he be the one to understand how painful that is? Do you think… that people who get hurt when they are children… do they always grow up to hurt other people? Tom… er You-know-who grew up in an orphanage… and look at him…"

"I think that if everyone who was hurt as a child grew up to be terrible abusers themselves, that the world would be in a lot worse shape than it is…" Aminah trailed off. "There's something that isn't right about the note from my father… I just know it. There's something wrong here. It's like what you were saying… how it wasn't really an apology at all… he wouldn't do that… "

"Do you know for sure that it is from him?"

They had walked a little ways toward the locker rooms, towels around their shoulders, staves in hand, and Harry carrying the wet towels he had accidentally summoned earlier.

"I just believed Godric when he said it was… but how would he know? I should look into it more… maybe there's a way to compare handwriting… I'll ask Gemma for help—she's an artist… I bet she'd be able to tell," Aminah said and her voice was filled with a lightness that Harry hadn't heard before. He wondered if he was giving Aminah false hope and he felt a dread settle heavily in his gut.

As if Gemma had known they were talking about her, her footsteps were clattering toward them. Harry could usually distinguish them from others because of the way she bounced when she walked.

"You can ask Gemma—she's coming this way," Harry said.

"It's amazing how you do that," Aminah said.

"What?" Harry asked, furrowing his brow.

"You're so good at identifying people by their voices and footsteps. How do you do that?"

"I dunno," Harry said, feeling his face flush.

Gemma greeted Harry by placing her hand under the hand that he extended for her and pulled the wet towels from him and ran across the room to dump them noisily in a hamper. She ran right back to them and Harry tried to explain that he wasn't asking her to take the towels. She signed that she understood and asked Harry why they were still in the pool area.

"We were talking…" Harry said, not sure how much he could share with Gemma. It was Aminah's story after all.

"I was telling him about the letter that I got from my father, but now I'm wondering if it was really from him. Could you help me? Could you compare his writing from other things I have to the letter?"

Gemma bounced around Harry and Aminah as she told Aminah that she'd love to help—water splashing from the small puddles throughout the room onto their legs punctuating her enthusiasm as they made their way to the locker rooms.

Harry cast the time charm nonverbally, wondering if he was going to be late to his session with Besel.

oO0OooO0OooO0OooO0Oo

The noise of the muggle braillers was giving Harry a headache as everyone around him punched the keys on the heavy metal machines in the small room inside the library where Madam Flamel held their braille lessons every day. He felt like each dot was being hammered into his head.

Starting the day swimming had been both invigorating and exhausting and now that he had a belly full of food, it was starting to catch up with him. It probably didn't help that his session with Besel had been especially taxing as they spent some more time processing his time with the Dursleys.

The question that had formed while he was in the pool with Aminah was still weighing heavily upon him… he was just beginning to admit to himself that he didn't deserve to be treated the way the Dursleys treated him… and now this fear that he would grow up to be just like them was a wriggling knot of Venomous Tentacula in his belly.

He had tried to ask Besel about the likelihood of him turning out like them and her responses had been frustratingly opaque… he knew that she wouldn't make promises she couldn't keep… and that unnerved him more than anything else.

As he squeezed his eyes shut and held his head, he wished that she would have just told him what he wanted to hear. And then he shook himself.

No. I don't want that…

He placed his fingers on the keys of the brailler again and tried to remember where he was. He couldn't remember. He ran his fingers over what he'd already written and then went back to the book on the table next to him to find the next word that he was translating from uncontracted braille to contracted braille. He found the spot where he was and continued writing… together became tgr… the word gathered up on itself, became tighter and more compact. Except that he couldn't help but think it was tiger.

He thought of the friendships he'd made in just a few quick weeks… simultaneously the longest and shortest weeks of his life. They had been thrown together through strange twists of fate and circumstances, but he felt as if they were a part of him now, no matter where their paths led after training ended… and in just two weeks he was headed back to the Dursleys with someone who was going to try to protect him.

It seemed like a huge hassle… why couldn't he just stay at the Center? Or go to Hogwarts? He thought about his most recent visit to Hogwarts… the discovery of the isolated tower, the Grey Lady, and the flying Gargoyle, Juren. Maybe he could just slip up into that tower… stash some food and water in his staff, fly down to hang out with Hagrid on occasion… help him tend the pumpkin patch or fish grindylows out of the lake…

And his next lesson was with Professor Lupin…

At least Aminah will be there… maybe I can get through it without exploding.

"You okay, Harry?" Aminah whispered as she found his arm, his hands resting on the keys of his brailler.

"Yeah, I'm fine," Harry said, fiddling with the keys of the brailler.

He felt an urge to tell Aminah everything about what had happened yesterday after she'd left class with Godric, but he didn't know what to say.

He didn't really know why he was so mad at Professor Lupin. Why did he feel so abandoned by someone he'd never really known? And why did he feel as though Professor Lupin owed him anything… Aunt Petunia was his mother's sister, after all, and she couldn't stand to look at him… why would Professor Lupin feel any sort of responsibility for him?

oO0OooO0OooO0OooO0Oo

Aminah and Harry walked together toward the Hogwarts Egress in a weighty silence with only the tapping of their staves echoing off the corridor walls—each lost in their own thoughts.

"Oh, good—you're both right on time today," Professor Lupin exclaimed before they were even nearing the door to the Egress. "I've got a special treat for today's lesson and I'm eager to get going on it."

Harry tried to smile, but his mouth just twitched. He wasn't sure if he could muster enthusiasm for a special treat. And what was a special treat in the context of a Defense Against the Dark Arts lesson?

Hexes that shoot soap bubbles? Grindylows with spaghetti noodles instead of fingers? Shield charms that crystallize into rock candy?

"What is it, Professor?" Aminah said, sounding a smidge more excited than Harry felt.

"Are you two okay?" Professor Lupin asked as he ushered them into his office.

"We just have had a long day… right, Harry?" Aminah asked.

"Yeah—I'm beat," Harry said, trying to ignore the way his heart was starting to speed up just because of the familiar odors in the room were reminding him of his distress yesterday in this same space.

"Well, then you'll like what we're doing today because we're going on a field trip. We're going to take a walk down to the Forbidden Forest to hunt for unicorn hair!" Professor Lupin sounded almost happy as he announced this… a far cry from his usual subdued manner.

"Um, professor?" Aminah said in a tentative voice. "You remember that we're blind, right?"

"Yes, in fact, I do. I realize that the prospect of searching the forest for fine strands of shimmering, translucent hair does seem like an exercise in frustration for you… but I have recently come across a spell that will aid us… but I'd rather demonstrate it than tell you about it. So let's head out and I'll explain why we're doing this on the way," Professor Lupin said as he walked back to the door and opened it for them.

Harry thought that Aminah's footsteps were a bit more reluctant than usual and he followed glumly behind her as they walked through the wide corridor—the reverberation of his staff's silvertip revealing the height of the ceiling and the wide, open space. He still felt that it was strange to be at Hogwarts without throngs of students filling the corridors with their movement and noise.

As they approached the staircase, something felt off. The breezed on his face warned him that the staircase was not at their landing. This was one of many worries that Harry had about returning to Hogwarts… and he was relieved to know that if he paid attention, he wouldn't necessarily plunge to his death by accidentally walking off a staircase that wasn't there.

"Oi! Hold on! Stop! The moving staircase is up to its usual antics, so just wait a second while it comes back around," Professor Lupin warned and Aminah gasped.

The grinding of ancient stone slabs moving against each other was a familiar sound, yet it seemed more ominous now. Harry could hear the staircase coming back around and feel it beneath his feet as it rumbled toward its destination just feet away from him. Professor Lupin started walking toward it, to lead the way down.

"Wait, professor!" Aminah called out, "It's not done yet."

And then the stairs snapped into place, the vibrations radiated out with the impact and then stilled.

"Oh, right you are. Thank you, Aminah. That's very observant."

Professor Lupin's footsteps slapped against the stone steps as Aminah and Harry used their staves as Godric had taught them to navigate stairs.

Harry closed his eyes tight as they approached the great doors, anticipating the piercing light. The wind carried the scent of heather from the moors, but also the musty dampness of the Forbidden Forest that got heavier as they approached it. The rustling of the trees and chittering of various birds and insects was a hum at a distance, but became more distinct noises the closer they got. It was different from the hum of London that surrounded the Center… all the muggle cars, trains, and lorries that rumbled the ground and reverberated in the air.

Harry was tempted to suggest that they use the brooms in his staff to fly down to the Forest's edge, but pushed the thought away… he reluctantly decided that he needed the practice walking around the grounds, navigating the stone pathways as well as dirt footpaths cut through the grassy hill the school stood on.

It kind of reminded him of his first time hiking in Mont Blanc down to the HMS Eden with Tony as small stones rolled under his feet. He noticed, though, that he was a lot more capable of figuring out what was on the path now with his staff… he could use the vibrations to understand what was in his way much more effectively.

As they neared the forest, Harry noticed that the temperature was dropping—there was a cool air that was seeping from the trees and forest floor. The air wasn't nearly as thin, either, as they walked into the shade of the trees. Harry opened his eyes again, noticing how dark the Forest really was, even in the daytime.

The forest floor seemed to be alive with the scurring and rustling sounds and Harry couldn't help imagining that every single one of them was an Acromantula.

"There aren't spiders in here, are there?" Aminah asked ask if she'd heard Harry's thoughts from behind her.

"Sure. All forests have spiders," Professor Lupin said.

"The big ones make a clicking noise with their pinchers," Harry told Aminah. "And I don't hear anything like that."

"Well, that's a comfort!" Aminah said with a huff.

After getting slapped in the face with a branch that left a raised welt on his check, Harry kept one arm raised to shield his head. He hadn't realized how fragrant the forest was before… it was filled with many more aromas than he remembered from his forays before.

I probably was too worried about werewolves and spiders to smell the forest before…

Their progress was slow and Harry was so focused on trying to stay on the path, avoid getting hit in the face with branches, and listening for man-eating spiders and the like, that he was having a hard time taking in what Professor Lupin was telling them about why they were looking for unicorn hairs and how that fit into Defense Against the Dark Arts lessons. Finally, they stopped in what felt like a clearing—Harry closed his eyes against the light again.

"Professor, I'm really sorry, but I really was having a hard time following what you were saying about why we're doing this," Aminah panted.

"Yeah, er, me, too," Harry agreed.

"Oh, you could have asked me to stop… " Professor Lupin said.

"I was listening to your voice for directions, but not really taking in the meaning," Aminah admitted.

"Well, I apologize—that was thoughtless of me. I'll go over the important points again. While you might think of gathering unicorn hairs as something a potions master or a magical animal caretaker might do, the hairs have defensive qualities as well. First of all, unicorns are powerfully magical creatures that are highly valued. Keeping track of the health of the unicorns that reside near you can alert you to danger," Professor Lupin said. "Did you want to add something, Harry?"

"Oh, well… Professor Quirrel was hunting the unicorns to make a potion for Voldemort two years ago. Neville, Draco, and I helped Hagrid track an injured one," Harry said, shuddering at the memory and ignoring Aminah's yelp at the name.

"Yes, Hagrid told me about that—it is an atrocious crime to kill something so innocent."

"The Centaurs said that someone who drinks unicorn blood pays a terrible price for it—that they are cursed to a half-life."

"That's true… only someone with nothing to lose would enter into that situation knowingly. So you already know a lot about unicorns, it seems… and the desperation of dark wizards."

"They are beautiful even while they are dying… and their blood… it glows in the dark."

"Oh, Harry, that's so awful," Aminah said.

"I'm sorry you were witness to that," Professor Lupin said and it sounded as though he meant it. "We're going to look for their hairs that are shed naturally as the creatures move through the forest and their hair from their tails and manes are caught on branches and bark. The hairs are very strong and have a number of uses… do you happen to know what they are?"

"Well, I know that they are used as cores for wands because mine has a unicorn hair," Aminah said. "I guess it isn't the most powerful of cores."

"Exactly—so while unicorn hairs aren't as powerful as some cores, they are among the most stable cores for wands and sought after by witches and wizards who make it their business to stand up against dark magic," Professor Lupin said. "It's a good quality to have in a wand."

"Unicorn hair is also a common potion ingredient, isn't it?" Harry said.

"Yes—it has a lot of attributes needed for potions—purity, strength, loyalty, and empathy. So, I'm going to show you how to cast a spell that will help you find unicorn hairs… most people just rely on their sight and they'll find the obvious hairs… but miss these… and the longer a unicorn hair is exposed to moonlight, the stronger it is… so the harder to find unicorn hairs are the ones that you want to use when combating dark magic. The spell is Locus unicornis capillus and the wand movement is a swish to the right and a curl—here—put your hands on my wrist and I'll make the movement—then you try. Aminah first, then Harry."

They practiced the wand movement until Professor Lupin thought they had it down and then he had them each cast it.

"What's that noise?" Harry said, turning his head from side to side trying to pin down where it was coming from.

"Do you hear it already?" Professor Lupin said.

"Oh, I hear it, too. Oh, it is beautiful," Aminah said. "And huh? My wand is responding? Wow."

"Really? What's it doing?" Harry asked.

"I can hear it singing, too, but fainter … here, oops… sorry about that," Aminah said as she held out her wand and poked Harry with it.

He laughed and then moved it closer to his ear.

"Oh, yeah, I can hear it, too. That's brilliant!"

"I thought you two might be really good at this. You're already attuned to listening. Most people can't hear this until they are shown what to listen for. Pay attention to how your body is responding to the music. It is part of the magic."

"It sounds like something is singing… but it reminds me of something…" Harry said. "Fawkes… it is like his song. It's like Phoenix song."

"Interesting connection, Harry. I've read that the creatures are connected in their essence. The music is thought to be an echo of the stars themselves… their light and music reflected in the unicorn's hair. Can you find out where it is coming from?"

Harry and Aminah started walking through the clearing and toward the music, making their way carefully around bushes and narrow passages between trees. They circled around a clump of trees that were growing close together, thick with undergrowth and decaying tree stumps that were covered in the furry texture of moss.

Harry was getting scratched and bumped as they tried to get closer to the melancholy music… the closer they got the more profoundly sad Harry felt. It wasn't the kind of sad he'd felt earlier… when his limbs were filled with sand. It was the most beautiful sadness he'd ever experienced. The kind of sad he felt at the end of a great day with Ron and Hermione knowing the day was over and there would never be another one like it. He reached up and touched his cheeks and found that they were wet with tears. He tucked his chin, trying to hide his face, but then relaxed remembering that Aminah couldn't see him. He wondered if she was affected in the same way.

Despite the sorrow, Harry felt compelled to get closer and he got down on his hands and knees to feel his way through the knot of trees and roots, until he could feel the unicorn hair vibrating close by—the music shimmering through the forest floor.

"Here, I've got it," Harry said, his voice breaking as his fingers found the thin strand.

Aminah was on the other side, also crawling through the decaying vegetation, her progress through the sticks and leaves noisy.

"I found one, too." Aminah's voice was also full of emotion.

"Nice work you, too. Two in one place. That's great. The music is getting to you… powerful, isn't it? Okay, I'm going to end the charm."

Harry wiped the tears from his face while he was crouched among the trees and realized that the welt on his face was smooth and his tears didn't sting the cut.

Hmmm. That's odd.

He crawled out of the knot of trees and walked back to where Professor Lupin was standing. He held the unicorn hair out to the professor.

"You hang on to that—you earned it. Keep it safe… you may need it sometime."